GAO denies final protest against NOAA’s ProTech 2.0 contract
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By
Nick Wakeman
Strong past performance was not enough to overcome weaker scores for management and technical experience.
The Government Accountability Office had denied the final protest facing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's $8 billion ProTech 2.0 contract.
NOAA awarded the Weather domain of the vehicle to 20 companies in September. Manutek was not among them and went to GAO challenging the evaluation of its proposal.
Manutek's issues included NOAA’s downgrading of its management approach, which was graded as “low confidence.” The company also challenged the grade for its technical experience, which was scored “some confidence.”
Manutek argued that its “exceptional” rating for its past performance should have been enough to overcome lower scores for management approach and technical experience.
But the solicitation said that technical experience and management approach carried more weight than past performance, according to the Jan. 8 GAO decision.
GAO found that NOAA’s evaluation and scoring was reasonable, and agreed with the agency NOAA that Manutek’s past performance could not overcome the other weaknesses.
Manutek’s protest was the last one challenging the ProTech 2.0 Weather Domain procurement. Other domains included Fisheries, Oceans and Satellites.